The New Year
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Laxus and Mira consider the coming year and its changes. - One-shot.


The floorboards creaked heavily beneath the slayer's feet and he feared, for a moment, that this might awaken nay of the strewn about members in the hall. But no. Boozed and bruised from their late into the night celebration, he didn't think any of them would be awakening until daybreak. At least. Maybe later, if Mirajane didn't force them all out so she could spend the day cleaning up the hall.

Mirajane…

He spotted each of the Thunder Legion members in the crowd and was glad, somehow, for their presence. Even if it was to their own detriment and his annoyance, the sight of them there, happy and intermingled in their own groups in the hall, rather than just alone together…

Evergreen had spent most of the night arguing with Elfman who, at the height of the party, had taken his aggravation in this out on any of those who surrounded him. It helped that, honestly, most other mages in the Fairy Tail guild liked a good quarrel or two. Especially when inebriated. And to ring in a new year at that.

Because that's what it was. The New Year. And in this new year, Freed had assured him, while he hoped to be the greatest of assistants to the man, his idol, Laxus, he also hoped that he would find a bit more to his life. Things were changing, for all of them, and he'd begun to spend more time around some of the other members. Not in the mentor way he had, the past few years, but something closer to a friend.

And he'd fallen asleep at a table of them, some new guys that Laxus didn't know too well, but Freed seemed rather intrigued by their magic, originally, but now just them. And that was good. That was great, even.

Bickslow found it much harder, however, to branch out. He'd been fine, before, when it was more of a casual thing, but now he was expected to make actual, lasting bonds with other people and he just…

Well…

Sometimes he said things that weren't exactly appreciated by other members. On purpose, a lot, but other times, even when it was, well, he just…

He had to work on controlling his tongue better. That was all. Literally, considering it frequently flopped right out of his disgusting mouth, but also figuratively, considering his mouth was partially so disgusting because of it's vile nature.

Still, he seemed to be making a lot of promise in the younger crowd. The late teen, early twenty guys seemed to think his antics were a riot and, well, if there was anything that Bickslow knew, it was how to play up to a crowd.

He'd seen the seith, the slayer had, throwing it down with some of the younger guys, as his babies cackled wildly at brawl. But it had all been in good, drunken fun. Maybe.

Honestly, with Bickslow, Laxus was never sure.

Still, he did like it a bit, to find himself not only broaching a new chapter in life, but also the three of them. He worried over them, honestly, though he'd never admit it. They meant a lot to them and, in his own transition, he just wanted to be certain that they found their own way. Even if it was separately.

Still, as Laxus' eyes traced over the horde of passed out members, it was hardly the three of them that he was really concerned about. No. He'd had more than a bit to drink that night himself and lost her, at some point. As he carefully stepped around the unconscious members, succumb to their own vices, he hoped to find her.

Mirajane.

To awaken her, of course. Because she didn't belong on a cold, hard bar floor. And she damn sure didn't belong snuggled up somewhere with one of these drunken morons. No. Absolutely not. And he knew, even as he searched, that he wouldn't find her there. Honestly, when he spotted her dorky sister over at a table, resting beside the stupid Salamander and his cat, he expected the Strauss he desired not to be far off.

But no.

She didn't seem to be around at all. The alcohol was making his head spin, honestly, the more faces he scanned and, eventually, he abandoned this approach and, after taking in a deep breath, he caught it rather easily.

Her scent.

It was imprinted on him, almost, it felt like. More than any other. And he caught it, leading not to one of the back rooms or, thankfully, out of the guildhall. No. It went up the staircase and, upon making an unstable, intoxicated trek up them, he found it to lead to none of the rooms up there either.

No.

Mirajane had gone out on the balcony, it seemed, and Laxus frowned some, tugging his fuzzy coat tighter around him as he braved the cold winter air for the woman.

She was out there, of course, as his dragon enhanced sense of smell never led him astray, but didn't seem nearly concerned with the cold. Over by the railing, she leaned against it, not even in a coat, just one of her standard dresses, which fluttered in the soft, wee hours breeze.

The woman didn't glance over her shoulder though at the sound of the slayer striding out onto the guildhall overlook as well. Not even as he approached the railing and rested his hands there, the greeting of the frost on the wood to his flesh being rewarded with a slight shiver.

"This," she remarked finally, glancing over at him, "is the new year, huh? Master?"

He regarded her with a long few stares though, ultimately, his gaze landed on her hands, which hung carefree over the railing as she leaned against it, a bottle of wine gripped rather loosely in one. While he wasn't unaccustomed to seeing the woman partake, she was rare to do so on guild grounds. Unlike the others sleeping off their alcohol downstairs, the guildhall was much more of a job site for the woman. Though there were very few people to give her much oversight (for as long as she'd had the job, it was mostly just the perverted old geezer), the woman seemed to hold herself to her own standard.

Which the man respected. Of course he did. But to see her there then, clearly having had her own fair share of that bottle in her hand, he felt something different. Glad, maybe. On her behalf.

If there was anyone who deserved a night to cut loose, it was the woman that woke up, each and every morning, before dawn, just to get their silly little hall up and running.

But she wasn't cutting loosing, was she? Just drinking, alone, in the cold.

"I'm not your master," he reminded the woman as, when she moved to raise the bottle to her already stained lips, he only reached over to snatch it. For a second, as their hands brushed, he felt warm, but it was only that second, and then he was cold once more. But with the wine. And, though he typically preferred something much harder, it was strong enough to tip him right out of buzzed and into something much deeper. After taking a long sip, he let out a short huff of a breath and remarked, "So don't call me that."

"Yet," Mira challenged and, well, it was his fault anyways.

For telling her the news.

It had been a little over a week ago, when Makarov took him aside and informed him that in the early weeks of the coming year, he intended to start the process of retiring from his position as Fairy Tail's master.

"Permanently," he added with a bit of necessity.

And Makarov swore him to secrecy, not for his own sake, but rather for Laxus'. He told him he should enjoy the holiday and the days following as, the second he found his place as Fairy Tail's new master, he would never live another carefree second.

While Laxus did agree, at least a bit, to enjoying the time he had before finally, fucking finally, finding his place, his name, where it belonged, forever etched in the guildhall he'd given up so much for (though, perhaps, taken just as much away from), there was at least one person that he wanted to share the news with. That he couldn't keep a secret from.

Not when they kept their own, together, so perfectly.

She hugged him.

When he told her.

That first time.

When Makarov and him had discussed it, only hours before, it had felt like some sort of mixture of official business and that same tense, yet familial tone the two always had between one another. It wasn't until that moment, as he waited around until after close, at the guild, when he and the woman usually shared their solitude, that it really hit him.

As her arms wrapped around his neck and she laughed joyfully into his chest, Laxus felt a burning there, beneath his skin and it was going to happen.

"You're," Mirajane whispered softly as she held tightly to him, nuzzling her head deeper into the fabric of the man's shirt, taking in every smell, every feeling of that moment as, even though it wasn't her own, she knew she'd want to live it over and over again, "going to be a great master."

He hoped so.

He'd always hoped so.

But hearing the woman assure him of this, as her head tilted back and upwards, so her bright blue eyes shined into his, for once, true, honest, happy grin, it just meant so much to him. More, even, than the concept had. Of being Master. It was his dream and that meant the world to him, having it hovering just before finish line, but man, having Mirajane, his woman, his demon, looking so...proud of him, sharing in his wealth, the same way he wanted to do hers, for every other achievement between the two of them ever, he was just so…

"It's okay, dragon," she insisted as he looked away from her then, his grin failing as his eyes felt a bit wet. "You can cry. I'll cry too! We're happy. I'm so happy. And I know that you are too."

And when she reached up, it wasn't for his cheeks, but rather to brush her thumbs beneath each of his eyes as well as press a gently kiss to the tip of her nose. When she pulled back with a giggle though, he had a harder look, one of determination.

If his demon thought he could do it, that he could be not only a master, but a good one, a great one, then fuck it, he had to be.

There was no other option.

This secret was only added to the pantheon of others the demon and dragon whispered into late nights at the bar and, when he was lucky enough, his apartment walls. Master. Master. For as good as he knew it would sound, to hear all the others in the guild refer to him in that way, there was just something about the way that the demon said it. So different, even, from how she'd said it in reference to every other one she'd served under.

There was a bit of extra veneration for Makarov and obvious respect for every other, but when she said it to Laxus, her dragon, she just got so…

It made her giddy. He could tell. The real kind, too, not the one she put on up at the bar. The one that was meant only for him. Not her siblings or friends. Just him. Laxus. Her dragon.

In the fresh, freezing air of the new year, Laxus only offered her the bottle of wine back before looking out over their city as well. Though he knew the woman found beauty in it, Magnolia cast in the pale light of the moon, he found that he rarely found it to be anywhere closer to her.

"Yet," he agreed as she only beamed at him, perhaps having had a bit too much to drink, but so what? Huh? If he had too?

It felt scandalous, somehow, being so close to one another, out there, alone, with all the others right down below them. And to be speaking on such an unofficial, but some how very official matter as well. Mirajane couldn't help it. Maybe it was the wine or maybe, just maybe, it was the fact that, really, she didn't care if someone saw them or not, not really, and what could they do? What could anyone say? Now? Or ever?

Maybe they were silly. The entire time, she decided then, laughing too loud into the otherwise still night, the snowfall around them seeming to capture it. Deaden it. For some reason, this made it all the more poignant to Laxus.

What if no one cared? That they were together? Or, even, what if they did care, and the cared a lot, and they were questioned on it and teased and bothered, but in the end, it only made them stronger? And then what?

What if it was more than just a secret? And they'd wasted all this time keeping it that way for no reason other than an unfounded fear? What if they were better, not hiding themselves away together, but sharing themselves with the world and none of it mattered?

But...what if they were only a secret? And once it was shared, there was nothing left keeping the bound together? And they fell apart? Or something forced them apart? Not even necessarily mal-intent by the others, but just the natural order of things? Both had been in relationships before. And knew the course each and every one took.

Maybe, just maybe, by keeping it a secret, they saved themselves from this. And they could keep playing at, toying with, egging on one another because it was more of a game, than a relationship, and rather than being played by another, they were only playing themselves.

It was so funny, for some reason, to the woman then, as she laughed into the dead night and the man only stood beside, never one for that emotion, honestly, but watching with curiosity. He wanted to laugh too, like that, eventually. Not in anger or victory, but that full bodied laughter Mirajane had going then, that drunken laugh and unabashed glee she seemed to have.

But was it glee?

Or something far worse?

"You've drank," he whispered softly when she brought the bottle back up to her lips, hoping it could keep this feeling, this exhilaration, coursing through her body, "enough. Demon."

"Yet," was all she replied to him then. And he frowned some, but nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed once more. "Yet."

Her laughs died suddenly and, when she looked at him then, it was almost like it was another woman entirely.

"Soon," she remarked simply, "Master will tell them all. And it won't just be between us."

"Not too soon."

"But soon."

"Not yet."

"Not," she agreed as well, "yet."

She'd gone back to it, watching her beloved city in the midwinter snowfall, but Laxus had turned to look at the woman once more, studying her again as, absently, she raised the bottle to her lips, nearly missing.

"You should go inside. Soon. Demon," he told her. "It's cold."

"Not too cold."

"Extremely," he retorted, "cold."

"I don't want to go in," she said with a soft sigh and shrug. "Yet."

"Yet."

"Dragon..."

"What?"

She made a face as, after asking this, he only came closer to her, huddling an arm around her shoulders as he awkwardly tossed his too large coat over her shoulders as well and it didn't work too well, they probably were getting more heat from just being close to one another, but eventually the gesture made the woman smile once more.

"I just," Mirajane whispered into the night, "missed you. Tonight. Is all."

"I was here all night."

"So was I," she agreed. "But it's different. And you know it."

"Once I'm Master," he assured her then, "I'll be around constantly. And so will you. And I'll be here after hours every single night. Eh? And-"

"It's a new year, Master." She leaned heavily into him and, given both their inebriation, she was lucky this didn't topple them. But he held firm. "And I just… I want new things. Or for it to be new. The year. I… Laxus, I'm…" She sounded different now, the joy in being around one another, alone together, taunting right in the face of others, was being melted away by something new in her. What had drive her up there, maybe, in the dreaded frigid evening, to wait, to hope he followed. "I love you. I guess. Is what I meant."

But Laxus only frowned down at her for moment, uncertain by her words and, perhaps, clouded by his own drinking, just a tad. As Mirajane brought up the bottle again, he was reaching as well, but not for it. Down though. Further. To his pocket.

She felt a bit hazy as she watched, from around the end of a wine bottle, the man produce a tiny little black box. Choking as he set balanced it, with no fear, on the frost covered railing, Mirajane only lowered the bottle and raised her eyes, staring heavily into his with severe confusion.

"L-Laxus-"

"I bought this," he began slowly, "over a month ago. Before Gramps even told me about the dumb master shit. But I didn't know what to do with it. Or how to… I know, Mira. We've spent over two years now, playing around it. Around everything. And it would be skipping so much, to just spring this on everyone, and we shouldn't do that. We should be upfront. We should have been upfront, from the beginning, but…"

"Are you serious?" It was far from ideal, of course, as she reached out to grab her own engagement ring box, popping it open herself to stare down with glassy eyes as the diamond inside. As fresh snow tumbled down from above and fell against the gemstone, she felt her eyes water. "Laxus, what-"

"It's okay, demon," he whispered softly, just to her, always just to her as, after dropping the wine bottle, she tried to blink it back, the wetness. "To cry. I...I'll cry too."

"Because we're happy," she whispered as one of his hands came up to brush at her eyes, first, the coat tumbling off both their shoulders, but the cold not bothering them, either of them, not one bit, as just as quickly, he was moving to pluck the ring from its box.

"Are we?" he questioned, looking at her rather intently and, though she nodded, allowing him to slip the ring onto her finger, she didn't affirm this aloud.

"Not yet," she whispered though she cried, regardless and Laxus didn't, not like he said he would, but he had that grin about him once more, that happy one, as he moved to press his forehead against hers. Because there was still so much more. Than this. To do. To tell. And what if it fell apart them? Huh? Like she feared? What if, removed from the secrecy, there was nothing and...and…

"Not yet," Laxus agreed, cupping her cheeks in his hands as he stared intently down into her blue eyes and yeah, no, the fucking cityscape didn't have shit on his woman. "I have so much more, Mira, to do, and I'm going to do it. All of it. This Master stuff, it just… It took me by surprise. And you too, I know, but… We'll figure it all out, huh? Demon? Together?"

Rather than answering immediately, she buried her head into his chest. Against it, she whispered, "Always."

And for some reason, that sounded so much better when he repeated it back to her.

* * *

**Call me a dumbass if you must, but I fucking messed up the days. I was like, ayy, I'mma upload the first day on Christmas Eve so it ends on New Years Eve, fucking perfect, but a day later I was like, wait...that'll leave me one day short. But awe, fuck it, what's a day early, right? Anyways, I dunno if I'll upload again today or tomorrow (the final chapter of Power and Regrets is coming, don't worry, I didn't forget), so if I don't, I think it's been a pretty good year, as far as my uploads have gone, so let's hope for the same in the next one. **


End file.
